fix(accessibility): expose focused terminal text area

Resources/Localizable.xcstrings

@@ -557994,6 +557994,65 @@
           }
         }
       }
+    },
+    "terminal.accessibility.contentArea.help": {
+      "extractionState": "manual",
+      "localizations": {
+        "en": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "Terminal content area"
+          }
+        },
+        "ar": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "منطقة محتوى الطرفية"
+          }
+        },
+        "de": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "Terminalinhaltsbereich"
+          }
+        },
+        "es": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "Área de contenido de la terminal"
+          }
+        },
+        "fr": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "Zone de contenu du terminal"
+          }
+        },
+        "ja": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "ターミナルコンテンツ領域"
+          }
+        },
+        "ko": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "터미널 콘텐츠 영역"
+          }
+        },
+        "zh-Hans": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "终端内容区域"
+          }
+        },
+        "zh-Hant": {
+          "stringUnit": {
+            "state": "translated",
+            "value": "終端機內容區域"
+          }
+        }
+      }
     }
   },
   "version": "1.0"

Sources/App/CmuxMainWindow.swift

@@ -151,6 +151,17 @@ final class CmuxMainWindow: NSWindow {
         workspaceSwitchSignposts.end(switchInterval)
     }
 
+    /// Returns the focused terminal surface directly so AX clients can read
+    /// terminal selection attributes without stopping at the window element.
+    override var accessibilityFocusedUIElement: Any? {
+        if let terminalView = firstResponder?.cmuxTerminalFocusOwningGhosttyView(),
+           terminalView.window === self,
+           terminalView.isAccessibilityElement() {
+            return terminalView
+        }
+        return super.accessibilityFocusedUIElement
+    }
+
     /// No content may resize this window past the attached display union. The content view
     /// hosts AppKit subtrees whose subviews carry REQUIRED autoresizing-mask
     /// constraints, and if any of them is ever laid out oversized, AppKit

Sources/GhosttyTerminalView.swift

@@ -3772,6 +3772,7 @@ class GhosttyNSView: NSView, NSUserInterfaceValidations {
     private var _renderedFrameFlushScheduled = false
     private var _pendingRenderedFrameDeliveryReasons:
         TerminalRenderedFrameDeliveryReasons = []
+    private var accessibilityScreenContentsCache: (value: String, expiresAt: CFTimeInterval)?
     /// Pane-local frame demand lets a terminal-specific consumer observe a
     /// late render without enabling notifications on every terminal surface.
     let localRenderedFrameNotificationDemand = RenderDemandCounter()
@@ -6325,14 +6326,88 @@ class GhosttyNSView: NSView, NSUserInterfaceValidations {
     }
 
     override func accessibilityHelp() -> String? {
-        "Terminal content area"
+        String(localized: "terminal.accessibility.contentArea.help", defaultValue: "Terminal content area")
+    }
+
+    override func isAccessibilityFocused() -> Bool {
+        guard let window, window.isKeyWindow else { return false }
+        return window.firstResponder?.cmuxTerminalFocusOwningGhosttyView() === self
     }
 
     override func accessibilityValue() -> Any? {
-        // We don't keep a full terminal text snapshot in this layer.
-        // Expose selected text when available; otherwise provide an empty value
-        // so AX clients still treat this as an editable text area.
-        accessibilitySelectedText() ?? ""
+        accessibilityScreenContents()
+    }
+
+    override func accessibilityNumberOfCharacters() -> Int {
+        accessibilityScreenContents().utf16.count
+    }
+
+    override func accessibilityVisibleCharacterRange() -> NSRange {
+        let content = accessibilityScreenContents()
+        return NSRange(location: 0, length: content.utf16.count)
+    }
+
+    override func accessibilityLine(for index: Int) -> Int {
+        let content = accessibilityScreenContents()
+        let prefix = String(decoding: content.utf16.prefix(max(0, index)), as: UTF16.self)
+        return prefix.reduce(into: 0) { count, character in
+            if character == "\n" { count += 1 }
+        }
+    }
+
+    override func accessibilityString(for range: NSRange) -> String? {
+        let content = accessibilityScreenContents()
+        guard let swiftRange = Range(range, in: content) else { return nil }
+        return String(content[swiftRange])
+    }
+
+    override func accessibilityAttributedString(for range: NSRange) -> NSAttributedString? {
+        guard let plainString = accessibilityString(for: range) else { return nil }
+        var attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [:]
+        if let surface,
+           let fontRaw = ghostty_surface_quicklook_font(surface) {
+            let font = Unmanaged<CTFont>.fromOpaque(fontRaw)
+            attributes[.font] = font.takeUnretainedValue()
+            font.release()
+        }
+        return NSAttributedString(string: plainString, attributes: attributes)
+    }
+
+    private func accessibilityScreenContents() -> String {
+        let now = CACurrentMediaTime()
+        if let cached = accessibilityScreenContentsCache, cached.expiresAt > now {
+            return cached.value
+        }
+        guard let surface else { return "" }
+
+        let selection = ghostty_selection_s(
+            top_left: ghostty_point_s(
+                tag: GHOSTTY_POINT_SCREEN,
+                coord: GHOSTTY_POINT_COORD_TOP_LEFT,
+                x: 0,
+                y: 0
+            ),
+            bottom_right: ghostty_point_s(
+                tag: GHOSTTY_POINT_SCREEN,
+                coord: GHOSTTY_POINT_COORD_BOTTOM_RIGHT,
+                x: 0,
+                y: 0
+            ),
+            rectangle: false
+        )
+        var text = ghostty_text_s()
+        guard ghostty_surface_read_text(surface, selection, &text) else { return "" }
+        defer { ghostty_surface_free_text(surface, &text) }
+
+        let value: String
+        if let ptr = text.text, text.text_len > 0 {
+            let data = Data(bytes: ptr, count: Int(text.text_len))
+            value = String(decoding: data, as: UTF8.self)
+        } else {
+            value = ""
+        }
+        accessibilityScreenContentsCache = (value: value, expiresAt: now + 0.5)
+        return value
     }
 
     override func setAccessibilityValue(_ value: Any?) {
@@ -6427,6 +6502,9 @@ class GhosttyNSView: NSView, NSUserInterfaceValidations {
 
     override func becomeFirstResponder() -> Bool {
         let result = super.becomeFirstResponder()
+        if result {
+            postAccessibilityFocusChanged()
+        }
         var shouldApplySurfaceFocus = false
         if result {
             imeConsumedKeyUps.removeAll()
@@ -6540,6 +6618,9 @@ class GhosttyNSView: NSView, NSUserInterfaceValidations {
 
     override func resignFirstResponder() -> Bool {
         let result = super.resignFirstResponder()
+        if result {
+            postAccessibilityFocusChanged()
+        }
         if result {
             imeConsumedKeyUps.removeAll()
             manualNamedKeyConsumedKeyUps.removeAll()
@@ -6561,6 +6642,12 @@ class GhosttyNSView: NSView, NSUserInterfaceValidations {
         return result
     }
 
+    private func postAccessibilityFocusChanged() {
+        guard let window else { return }
+        NSAccessibility.post(element: window, notification: .focusedUIElementChanged)
+        NSAccessibility.post(element: NSApp, notification: .focusedUIElementChanged)
+    }
+
     // For NSTextInputClient - accumulates text during key events
     private(set) var keyTextAccumulator: [String]? = nil
     private var markedText = NSMutableAttributedString()

cmuxTests/TerminalAndGhosttyTests.swift

@@ -974,6 +974,96 @@ final class GhosttyPasteboardHelperTests: XCTestCase {
     }
 }
 
+@MainActor
+final class TerminalAccessibilityRegressionTests: XCTestCase {
+    private var surfaces: [TerminalSurface] = []
+
+    override func tearDown() {
+        for surface in surfaces {
+            surface.hostedView.removeFromSuperview()
+            surface.teardownSurface()
+        }
+        surfaces.removeAll()
+        super.tearDown()
+    }
+
+    func testAccessibilityValueExposesRenderedTerminalContent() {
+        let surface = TerminalSurface(
+            tabId: UUID(),
+            context: GHOSTTY_SURFACE_CONTEXT_SPLIT,
+            configTemplate: nil,
+            workingDirectory: nil
+        )
+        surfaces.append(surface)
+
+        let window = NSWindow(
+            contentRect: NSRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 640, height: 400),
+            styleMask: [.titled, .closable],
+            backing: .buffered,
+            defer: false
+        )
+        defer { window.orderOut(nil) }
+
+        let hostedView = surface.hostedView
+        hostedView.frame = window.contentView?.bounds ?? .zero
+        hostedView.autoresizingMask = [.width, .height]
+        window.contentView?.addSubview(hostedView)
+        window.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil)
+        window.displayIfNeeded()
+        hostedView.setVisibleInUI(true)
+        hostedView.setActive(true)
+        window.contentView?.layoutSubtreeIfNeeded()
+        hostedView.layoutSubtreeIfNeeded()
+
+        XCTAssertTrue(
+            waitUntil(timeout: 5) { surface.surface != nil },
+            "Expected a live Ghostty surface before checking accessibility content"
+        )
+
+        let marker = "cmux-ax-content-\(UUID().uuidString)"
+        XCTAssertTrue(surface.sendText("printf '\\n\(marker)\\n'\n"))
+
+        guard let surfaceView = hostedView.surfaceView else {
+            XCTFail("Expected the hosted Ghostty view")
+            return
+        }
+        XCTAssertTrue(
+            waitUntil(timeout: 5) {
+                (surfaceView.accessibilityValue() as? String)?.contains(marker) == true
+            },
+            "AXValue should contain text rendered by the terminal"
+        )
+    }
+
+    func testMainWindowAccessibilityFocusResolvesFocusedTerminalView() {
+        let window = CmuxMainWindow(
+            contentRect: NSRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 640, height: 400),
+            styleMask: [.titled, .closable],
+            backing: .buffered,
+            defer: false
+        )
+        defer { window.orderOut(nil) }
+
+        let terminalView = GhosttyNSView(frame: window.contentView?.bounds ?? .zero)
+        window.contentView?.addSubview(terminalView)
+        window.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil)
+
+        XCTAssertTrue(window.makeFirstResponder(terminalView))
+        XCTAssertTrue(window.accessibilityFocusedUIElement as AnyObject? === terminalView)
+    }
+
+    private func waitUntil(timeout: TimeInterval, condition: () -> Bool) -> Bool {
+        let deadline = ProcessInfo.processInfo.systemUptime + timeout
+        while ProcessInfo.processInfo.systemUptime < deadline {
+            if condition() {
+                return true
+            }
+            RunLoop.current.run(until: Date().addingTimeInterval(0.01))
+        }
+        return condition()
+    }
+}
+
 @MainActor
 final class TerminalOffscreenStartupTests: XCTestCase {
 #if DEBUG